2021 Parade Honorees
OUR POSTHUMOUS HONOREE
MAJOR HELEN FREUDENBERGER HOLMES
Guthrie’s Helen Freudenberger Holmes (1915 - 1997) will be honored in the 2021 ‘89er Parade. A beloved Mayor of Guthrie, long-time active member of the American Legion, journalist, historian, teacher, and Major of the Women’s Army Corps, Helen Holmes is still very remembered in Guthrie, in Oklahoma, and across the nation.
Major Holmes has been posthumously inducted into the U.S. Army Women’s Foundation Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences as a Distinguished Alumna. She even has her own Wikipedia page.
Her long list of firsts includes the first woman to earn a master’s degree in Agriculture Journalism from the University of Wisconsin; the first woman to teach journalism at Oklahoma A&M; the first woman in Oklahoma to be sworn in to the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps; and the first woman from Oklahoma to serve in the military in WWII.
As a journalist, she became editor of the Maud Daily Enterprise, Flying Farmer Magazine, and the Guthrie Daily Leader; and she wrote a two-volume history of Logan County, as a historian. She was also a wonderful wife and mother.
In 1979 she was elected Mayor of the City of Guthrie, Oklahoma. Many talk highly of her and remember her hard work for the City of Guthrie and the American Legion.
Helen Freudenberger Holmes epitomizes the theme for this years’ ‘89er Parade: Women of the Military. She was a great leader, a great soldier, and an amazing woman. Look for her son, Major William J. Holmes, and daughter, Andrea M. Volturo, in a yellow Mustang convertible in Saturday’s parade.
OUR PARADE MARSHAL
BRIGADIER GENERAL (RETIRED) THERESA M. CASEY
Brigadier General Theresa M. Casey retired from the Air Force in December 2009 after 27 years of service. She presently serves as the Director, Trainee Health Surveillance, at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland, working health protection and human performance enhancement initiatives and issues for over 80,000 basic military trainees and technical and international students trained annually at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland.
General Casey is a graduate of Guthrie High School and a high-ranking and many times decorated military leader. Read more about this amazing woman on her Biography page.
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